A Systems Modeling Approach to Project Management : The Green Islands Project example

Successful Project Managers understand in detail the customer requisites during project scope definition, avoiding therefore changes during the execution stage that will negatively influence the schedule, cost and quality of the project results. Unfortunately, the project manager and the customer have often different communication skills and scope changes are frequent throughout the project life. This paper proposes the use of Systems Modeling as a communication tool to allow the project team to illustrate potential project results to customers and better understand their expectations at the earliest stage possible. The implementation of this approach to the MITPortugal Green Islands Project clearly shows how it was possible to fill the gap between the customer and the project team in terms of the project objectives and requisites.